Star Constellation Facts: Canes Venatici

While Ptolemy described the stars of modern-day Canes Venatici as “informes”, the “unformed” [stars] of Ursa Major, the constellation proper was only introduced to the world in the late 1600’s by the Polish astronomer Hevelius, when he published his magnum opus, Firmamentum Sobiescianum. Along with Canes Venatici, Hevelius also created the constellations, Lacerta, Leo Minor, Lynx, Scutum, Sextans and Vulpecula.

Location

Canes Venatici is the 38th largest of the 88 recognized constellations, taking up an area of 465 square degrees of the northern sky. The constellation is visible for observers located between latitudes +90° and -40°, and and can be found tucked under Ursa Major’s tail, where Ptolemy originally included it in the main formation of the Great Bear’s stars.

Best Seen

The constellation is best observed in the northern hemisphere during spring and summer, but note that Canes Venatici never sets for observers north of latitude 43° N. Look for the constellation where it is trapped between Ursa Major to the east, and Bootes to the west. The galaxy M94 is directly above, and about halfway along the line formed between the stars that define the constellation.

Historical Background

Canes Venatici is generally taken to represent Asterion and Chara, the two hunting dogs of the neighboring constellation of Bootes (the Herdsman), although the association comes only through a series of mistakes in translation. As mentioned, Ptolemy included Canes Venaticids as part of Ursa Major, and after he published his Almagest some of the stars he referred to as the ‘club’ of Boötes were later mistranslated by first Arabic and then Medieval translators into “canes”, meaning “dogs” in Latin.

Notable Stars

Although Canes Venatici takes up a great deal of space, the constellation proper consists of nothing more than a straight line between Cor Caroli (Alpha Canum Venaticorum) and Chara (Beta Canum Venaticorum), the two bright stars that represent the dogs of Bootes, the Herdsman. The constellation also has several stars that are remarkable for the fact that they are the prototypes of entire classes of stars, and below are brief descriptions of some of the principal stars in the constellations:

– Cor Caroli (Alpha Canum Venaticorum) is binary star located about 110 light years away. Its apparent visual magnitude varies between 2.84 and 2.98, which makes it the brightest star in the constellation. The primary star (Alpha-2 CVn) in the system is classified as an Ap/Bp star, which means that it contains an overabundance of certain metals; in this case, the metals europium, mercury and silicon. Cor Caroli is also remarkable for the fact that its magnetic field is about 5,000 times as powerful as Earth’s. It is also the prototype of the Alpha-2 Canum Venaticorum variables, a class of variable stars that produce star spots so large that they can influence the star’s overall luminosity.

– Chara (Beta Canum Venaticorum) is a G-type main sequence star, and the second-most luminous star in the constellation with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.26. It is located about 27 light years away, making it one of the closest stars to the Sun that is similar to the Sun in terms of composition, age, and mass. In fact, the star is so similar to the Sun that it is referred to as a “solar analogue”, or sometimes as the Sun’s Twin.

– AM Canum Venaticorum (AM CVn) is a cataclysmic variable star, and the prototype of a class of variable stars known as AM CVn stars. This class of cataclysmic variable stars consists of binary systems in which both stars are white dwarfs, enveloped by an accretion disc made up of mostly helium. “Normal” cataclysmic variable star systems usually consist of a white dwarf and a relatively normal star, from which the white dwarf pulls matter first into an accretion disc, and then onto itself.

Notable Deep Sky Objects

– Messier 3 (NGC 5272) may not be a galaxy, but it is one of the oldest, brightest, and biggest globular star clusters ever discovered, containing about half a million stars. It is located about 34,000 light years away, and has an apparent visual magnitude of 6.2. It is estimated to be about 8 billion years old.

– The Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51, NGC 5194) is a classic example of a grand design spiral galaxy, and no doubt the most photographed, and therefore the best known galaxy in the entire observable universe- even though it is all of 31 million light years away. Also known as M51a, this 8.4 magnitude galaxy is in the opening stages of a destructive interaction with the smaller background galaxy, Messier 51b, also in Canes Venatici. M51 has a huge central disc spanning about 76,000 light years, which makes it an easy target for binoculars even from urban observing sites. M51 is the most luminous galaxy in the M51 Group, a small group of galaxies in Canes Venatici that has about half-a-dozen members.

– The Whale Galaxy (NGC 4631, Caldwell 32, Arp 281, PGC 42637); somewhat resembling a blue whale, the distorted shape of this galaxy is thought to be the result of a very high rate of star formation taking place in its central parts. The high rate of star formation is causing intense X-ray emissions that are thought to be re-emitted by a cloud of gas surrounding the entire galaxy- hence the blue light in this enhanced image.

Meteor Showers

Although there is some doubt about the existence of a meteor stream from Canes Venatici, an official research program, the Radio Meteor Project, has confirmed the existence of the Canes Venaticids, a shower that runs from January 13th to January 30th as long ago as 1965. The shower seems to peak around January 24th, but with an uncertain average meteor count, since the radio equipment was not operational during a part of the research program.

Planets: 2 Planets

As of 2016, the constellation has only two stars with one planet each, one being a gas giant orbiting a cool red dwarf star.

Related Articles

Ursa Major is an important reference point for locating several surrounding constellations. Ursa Major: This translates from Latin as ‘The Big Bear.’ The 7 brightest stars in this constellation form a distinctive shape, known separately […]

Located Near North Celestial Pole Polaris is a white supergiant star located around 430 light-years away in the constellation Ursa Minor. It is has an apparent magnitude of 1.97, making it the 48th brightest star […]